SINGAPORE — Changi Airport Group chairman Liew Mun Leong and his family thought they were simply being absent-minded when they could not locate some of their belongings.

Over time and as more prominent items went missing, their suspicions turned to Parti Liyani, 44, their Indonesian domestic worker of eight years.

A day after they sent her packing, Mr Liew’s son, Mr Karl Liew Kai Lung, said they were proven right when he - together with his wife, mother and another maid - opened three jumbo boxes that she had left behind to be couriered back to Indonesia.

“We discovered that there were items we’d not seen for many years… I was amazed how many of these (were items that had gone) missing over all these years. We got emotional (as) some (of them) had sentimental value (to us),” he told the court on Tuesday (April 24), the second day of Parti’s trial for allegedly stealing more than S$50,000 worth of items belonging to four members of the family.

“How can we be paying for the boxes to be shipped back to Indonesia?” he added.

Among the items with sentimental value was a piece of winter clothing that Mr Karl Liew had got in the United Kingdom during his student days. After it went missing, he would ask Parti if she had located it every time he returned from business trips to China between 2005 and 2012, he said.

Parti, who worked at the Liews’ Chancery Lane home, was fired on Oct 28, 2016, without reasons given. She was given two to three hours to pack, as well as two to three months’ salary as compensation, said Mr Karl Liew, a former private banker and undischarged bankrupt.

Parti allegedly stole a damaged Gerald Genta watch with a broken strap valued at S$25,000, two white iPhone 4s with accessories valued at S$2,056, 120 pieces of male clothing valued at S$150 each, a S$500 blanket, three S$100 bedsheets, a S$150 Philips DVD player, S$300 worth of kitchenware and utensils, a S$250 black Gucci wallet, a S$250 black Braun Buffel wallet, and a S$50 Helix watch from him.

The value of the items – mostly gifts from friends or family – are based on Mr Karl Liew’s estimate. The watch was a gift from his father that he kept under his study table so he could take it for repair at a later date.

He said he was the member of the family with the worst relationship with Parti, who cooked for him and washed his clothes before he moved to another apartment a few units away.

Describing her as “snappy” with mood swings, he said: “She wasn’t very good with taking instructions from me.” When he asked if she had seen any of his belongings, she would reply: “Find it yourself.” And when he asked what she had cooked, she would respond: “See for yourself.”

On Parti’s dismissal, Mr Karl Liew said he acted on the instructions of his father - who was Parti’s employer - with representatives from her employment agency present.

She reacted “like a possessed woman” and demanded a reason, he claimed. Calling him “a bad person” who needed to be punished by Allah, she also put up a struggle and had to be restrained by the employment agency’s personnel, he said.

After packing three boxes’ worth of items, Parti demanded her employers pay for them to be shipped to Indonesia. “I refused, and she started becoming violent to me,” said Mr Karl Liew, who said he was persuaded otherwise by the employment agency.

He, however, rejected Parti’s request to see his mother, whom she was closest to.

While the reason for Parti’s dismissal was not explicitly stated on Tuesday, the court heard that the elder Liew had given a statement to the police when he reported the alleged theft two days after Parti’s sacking. Mr Liew Mun Leong said he had discovered photographs of her and her boyfriends, and was afraid the men might cause a nuisance or break into his residence.

On Tuesday, Mr Karl Liew also recalled seeing photos of Parti kissing and hugging men at parties as he tried to make sense of why she had kept his shirts.

Parti was arrested at Changi Airport on Dec 2, 2016, when she returned to Singapore to seek work with another employer.

A video taken by Mr Karl Liew’s wife, Madam Heather Lim Mei Ern, following their discovery of the boxes’ contents, was shown in court on Tuesday.

His mother could be heard suggesting they engage a “karung guni” man (rag-and-bone man) to collect the items, which they had scattered all over the floor.

The remark was a passing comment, he told the court.

The prosecution will continue examining Mr Karl Liew when the trial continues on Wednesday.